What are the facts and issue behind Pacific Operations v Valladolid?

Pacific Operations Offshore  v. Valladolid is a May, 2010 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case that is headed to the Supreme Court. It concerns the death of Juan Valladolid, a roustabout for Pacific who worked the vast majority of the time on offshore drilling platforms.

On rare occasions he performed maintenance duties such as painting and sandblasting for Pacific’s land facility located 250 from shore. On one of those occasions while centralizing scrap metal he was crushed by a forklift.

His widow filed for compensation under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA).

An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) denied her claim because her husband was not engaged in maritime activities nor was working in a marine environment when he was killed.

A Benefits Review Board (BRB) upheld the ALJ decision.

The case worked its way up to the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco. The issue: under the OCLSA must a worker actually be injured on the outer continental shelf to receive workers’ compensation benefits?

The Ninth Court relied upon earlier decisions by two other courts. 1) The Third Circuit which ruled the employee is always eligible for compensation because the company’s shelf operations are the so called “but for” cause of the injury.  2) The Fifth Circuit held that the worker is never eligible because compensation applies only to injuries occurring on the shelf. 

So what did the Ninth Court decide? It split the difference, holding that the worker is sometimes eligible depending upon the extent and nature of the relationship between the injury and the shelf operations.
Essentially, the Ninth Court punted to the Supreme Court, which has agreed to take on the case.

Source: Hawaii Ocean Law Blog